He already knows ours!!Judges 7:1-7 “Early in the morning, Jerub-Baal (that is, Gideon) and all his men camped at the spring of Harod. The camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh. The Lord said to Gideon, “You have too many men. I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against Me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’ Now announce to the army, ‘Anyone who trembles with fear may turn back and leave Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand men left, while ten thousand remained.  But the Lord said to Gideon, “There are still too many men.

Take them down to the water, and I will thin them out for you there. If I say, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go; but if I say, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.”

The first thing I want to say, is that it is extremely important to:  a/ make sure you don’t miss any of the details when reading scripture;  and b/ today, take particular note of the fact that Gideon eyeballed every single man as he drank and there were 10,000 men! There were 22,000 cowardly custards BTW! Our God is always in the detail! Human beings love to run on and start planning how to make what God says work.

Maybe like this? … “Oh so the lappers stay, and the cupped hands guys go? Hands up all the lappers.” But Gideon had to listen to God for each individual man’s involvement. All 10,000 of them! God’s answer to prayer and Him helping us, doesn’t look like we think it will. I cannot begin to count how many times that has been my experience. My advice is this – don’t get ahead of Him – you’ll miss the blessing. HE’S THE BLESSING. 

When you are about to fight an army that is called, by reputation, ‘without number’ … eliminating fighting men does not seem all that clever. And that’s the bit I want you to take away today – the Lord does not do things the way we do them. HIS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS – HIS WAYS ARE PAST FINDING OUT. I often wonder why people drive themselves nuts trying to figure out and plot the way that the Lord is going to do something or other, in the light of a story like this one. He exhorts us to wait for Him.

His ways are so far above ours! I urge us all to read the book looking carefully at the details, He reveals Himself there. Otherwise, it can seem out of touch and pretty weird … that He would even think of saving a whole city with an evangelist who spent his entire preparatory time for preaching, in the belly of a whale! Maybe getting swallowed up, helped with repentance and obedience.  

Let’s look at the New Testament to see if things like this are any different from the stuff in the Old… sh-a-ll we? How about feeding thousands of people from 5 loaves and 2 fishes … Now you and I don’t see that every other Friday at the fish shop do we? Or how about making a brand new eyeball out of spit and dirt? Granted, it was Jesus’ own spit, but … … you get my drift. You know I figure the Lord was there when Father God made man in the first place, so He knew all about how to make people’s spare parts out of dirt! 

What about walking past a pool, which was specially set up for sick people to congregate around, and yet the Lord went there and healed just one man! Where did ‘He healed them all’go?? We need to learn to laugh at ourselves and our pitiful attempts to understand what He is doing and WHY! To know Him better, and stand in awe of His awesomeness, we must begin to notice the details in the book. We can’t just cherry pick and choose the bits that suit us and our own understanding – which, BTW, we are not supposed to lean on (!) … when we read the bible.

You know, the bible says God Himself laughs!! Psalm 2:4 “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision.” I thank God that I have an Advocate standing right by my Heavenly Father’s right hand explaining the way human beings think. No wonder the Lord laughs! We make such hard work out of everything!

Finally, have you ever reflected upon why the Lord God chooses such unusual methods of operation? Why was that snake allowed in the garden? What can I learn from that?? Why stick Jonah in a whale? Why take trumpets and lamps into a battle, or march round the city for 7 days in silence, and then shout!  Why pour gallons of water over an altar that is meant to be set on fire? God’s ways are past finding out … we need to stop trying to finagle Him into bringing about the results that we think are going to be great, AND instead start listening to Him. Let’s follow His implicit instructions, obey what He says and learn how to trust Him instead. Learning to listen… another great key.  Bye👋🏻